A-P Fonden 3, one of four of the national Swedish pension funds, has appointed CoreRatings, the UK ethical research and rating firm, to carry out ethical and environmental research.

Tomas Nicolin, managing director of the Skr125bn (€13.75bn) A-P Fonden 3, said: "Our environmental and ethical policies will first and foremost be implemented through shareholder activism. Instead of choosing a method of excluding individual companies or sectors from our portfolio, we believe that we can be more useful in using our shareholder power in a responsible way."